Day 5: Starving to death
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!" (Luke 15:17).
Heavenly Father, Praise be to You. You are the Father of compassion (2 Corinthians 1:3), abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion (Numbers 14:18). You are the God who has compassion on us; [who] treads our sins underfoot and hurls all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).
The Lord Jesus shows us Your Father-heart of compassion in a series of parables in Luke 15, including The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-31). He describes a great, unfailing, amazing, love that we can scarcely comprehend—a love that never leaves us even when perverse and foolish we stray to distant countries, and squander our wealth in wild living (Luke 15:13).
Father, thank You for holding out hope for those who have journeyed to a far country (Luke 15:13 - NKJV). Thank You, that with You there is forgiveness (Psalm 130:4). Thank You that after the straying, and the wandering and the squandering, You extend Your arms to embrace us and draw us back into Your unfailing love.
O Father, thank You that Your grace is unconditional. Thank You that for every wandering child, You meet us while we are still a long way off, and You shower us with love, cover our nakedness, and fill our emptiness (Luke 15:18-23).
We pray for those on our hearts who even now are starving to death in the far countries of wandering and separation—those equally lost and destitute in a maze around the corner, or in a faraway labyrinth. Those who in desperate emptiness have come to look with longing at swine husks and pig slop.
Help them to begin to be in need (Luke 15:14). Help them to come to their senses—to recognize the plenty they have exchanged for nothingness. Help them to set out and go back (Luke 15:18). O Lord, turn their hearts and their steps towards home.
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me; See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me.
Refrain: Come home, come home, You who are weary, come home; Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!
Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, Pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger and heed not His mercies, Mercies for you and for me?
Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, Passing from you and from me; Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, Coming for you and for me.
Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised, Promised for you and for me! Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon, Pardon for you and for me.
~ Will L. Thompson ~ Published 1880
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